


Crush

by HamletMouse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blushing, Daddy Kink Jokes, Fluff, I love that boy, M/M, Matt makes everyone thirsty, Minor Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), One-Sided Allurance, Pining, Season 7 Spoilers, Shiro in a speedo, Tiny bit of Angst, ace!pidge, but not stupid!Lance, food pick-up lines, gratuitous pick-up lines, klance, lots and lots of fluff, lots of giggling, oblivious!lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 04:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15964355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HamletMouse/pseuds/HamletMouse
Summary: ‘Lance, I’m gay? I thought you knew?’ Keith answered looking around at Pidge and Hunk looking slightly unsure of himself. Yeah Lance did know that, another example of his stupid lack of brain to mouth filter. ‘And I know what it’s like to have an unrequited crush, I mean doesn’t everyone?’ He turned to look back at Lance looking even more unsure. Pidge shook her head and made a noise of disgust, but Hunk nodded understandingly.Or Lance gets rejected by Allura, discovers Keith has a crush on someone and sets out to find out who it is.





	Crush

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a Voltron fic! This is basically 15k of fluff and the paladins having fun especially Shiro because they deserve it, dammit. 
> 
> Many thanks to Mimi for beta-reading and fangirling with me at god knows what time at night. Much love xxxxx

It sucked. It sucked so so bad, Lance could barely stand it. He was used to flirting, hell he was used to rejection! The more ladies he took his chance on the more likely one would say yes right? But he had never ever felt like this before. Never ever. He groaned as the memories forced themselves to replay in his head yet again and tried to bury himself further into the couch he was lying on.

‘C’mon dude, it’s not that bad.’

‘God bless you Hunk, but I assure you, it was that bad. It was so freaking bad, why did I do it?’ He flung himself back into standing and after a moment’s pause, flung himself straight back down. The shame was creeping over him like an itch in his skin; in his blood; starting as a slow crawl and then morphing into a sprint, racing faster around his body, building up to a crescendo of pure humiliation before the tsunami of anxious energy crashed and receded back into that sick, crawling itch again. It was like feeling the need to run to the bathroom to throw up only to get there and find that it’s not coming at all and you’re just staring into the toilet bowl, that awful queasy feeling swirling in your stomach that won’t go away; it just stubbornly mixes in with that weird tingly heat all over your body until you’re almost begging to puke just for some relief but it still won’t come.

‘Can you stay still and stop moping for just a second Lance? Kinda working over here’ Pidge called from her place over at the control panel they had been working in since being released from the hospital bay. It had been a long road for all of them after the final explosion of the mecha-robot that came from nowhere. They had understandably all been pretty injured; (close to death in fact, but Lance didn’t want to dwell too hard on that part) and though they weren’t completely healed by a long shot, they had made it. All of them. And now they were starting to move forward to creating alliances with other planets and defending the universe from the Galra warlords still traversing the cosmos.

Whilst this was going on, the paladins and crew had been set up in one of the staff apartments at the Garrison, and bad personal problems aside, Lance was pretty damn stoked to have a comfy bed to call his own.  Hell, he was stoked to be sleeping in a real bed and not curled up in the impromptu cot in the back of his lion with Kaltenecker or Kosmo or any other guest he had to host. And he can’t say he was displeased with the lack of Galra and not having to fight for his life every other day. The existence of rooms with a couch to sit on and chill in was also a major bonus. That’s not even getting started on having Earth food and Earth air and real rain and ALL of his family within driving distance to visit any time he wants.

The team were needed to provide information to the Garrison and to give their input into strategies and theories for the future, but on the whole, they had plenty of downtime too until they made a complete recovery. Of course some of them were needed more than others and this was really what had led to his most recent downfall.

With all of this space, planning and downtime, he found himself, more often than not, paired up with Allura (and Keith) to provide information on key battles and act as a kind of go-between between Earth and the Alteans. This also meant spending a lot of spare time showing Allura his favourite Earth things and explaining how things like microwaves worked. It was understandable to feel that their friendship had deepened, and this gave him the false confidence to believe that the time was ripe to make a move. On Allura.

Fuck, why did he do it? They’d been getting closer, true, but she was still so far out his league it wasn’t funny.  The worst thing was that she wasn’t even mean about it, she genuinely looked pained as she ripped his heart out and broke it into a million pieces. She said she loved him as a friend and that he was an amazing person who deserved someone whose heart was as big as his. But he didn’t believe that. Not really. They’d finally gotten to the point where they were really great friends and _he_ fucked it up. He was the one not deserving of her. At least if she’d been disdainful he could muster up some good old bravado, ham it up, make it a joke. Instead he was stuck in this sickly in-between state where he hadn’t quite found closure and any flicker of hope was non-existent; there was just a big old black hole of despair sitting somewhere in his rib cage and a whisper in his brain telling him every single reason why Allura didn’t like him back.

‘You know what Pidge? No I cannot, kind of having a breakdown over here.’ And he was pacing harder than ever. ‘Why am I such a fuck up?’ he moaned in Hunk’s general direction.

‘How have you fucked up now Lance?’ a new voice joined in as Keith wandered into the room and dropped onto the couch Lance had just vacated, his hair wet and a towel wrapped around his neck, obviously fresh out of the shower. He’d probably been training, Lance supposed. He knew that just as much as Lance was revelling in comfy beds and sofas, Keith was equally as ecstatic to be able to train and fight his butt off using the Garrison’s very best facilities, despite the fact they had been told to take it easy.

‘He confessed to Allura and she shot him down.’ Pidge answered absent-mindedly evidently too engrossed in her work to even gossip about Lance’s pain. Keith tensed up immediately at Pidge’s answer.

‘What? Why? When?’ He turned and stared at Lance with wide shocked eyes that somehow made Lance feel just that little bit worse about the whole ordeal. ‘I mean like, you flirt with her all the time, but a confession, like a l…a love confession?’ and honestly Lance didn’t really see why Keith cared all that much. At least enough to have lost control of his mouth.  Enough to get Lance’s hackles rising.

‘Yes Keith, a love confession. You may be all old and grizzled now but your emotional growth has a long way to go. But don’t worry when it finally catches up with you, and you get some actual experience with the ladies, you might get to learn what it’s like to have a crush on someone as amazing as Allura.’ He made his tone as patronising as possible and honestly he didn’t even really know why. There was just something about Keith that riled him up so easily. Sure, things had improved between them but when it came to his personal failures, Lance was ashamed to say that he still hasn’t learnt how to let it roll off him and keep his mouth shut. Plus he still hadn’t really processed Keith’s return to the team. They had been under so much pressure since then, there was no time for reconciliation and to be frank, he sometimes felt like Keith didn’t like him on a personal level. He thought they had gotten over this part of their relationship, but although Keith still showed that he trusted Lance as his right hand, sometimes the things he said to him lately were just plain mean. He could already feel the annoyance at himself skulking at the edge of his own thoughts. Judging by the incredulous look on Keith’s face, Keith had already accepted the annoyance with open arms.

‘Lance, I’m gay? I thought you knew?’ Keith answered looking around at Pidge and Hunk looking slightly unsure of himself. Yeah Lance did know that, another example of his stupid lack of brain to mouth filter. ‘and I know what it’s like to have an unrequited crush, I mean doesn’t everyone?’ He turned to look back at Lance looking even more unsure. Pidge shook her head and made a noise of disgust, but Hunk nodded understandingly. Lance rallied.

‘Well, yeah but not like a serious adult crush.’ he bolstered, determined to beat Keith like usual even if it was just to see who was more heartbroken. He could almost feel his brain cringing at itself. ‘And it’s like ten times worse when it’s someone you’re trapped in space with!’ and to his surprise, Keith blushed. A proper, deep, Po-the-Teletubby red that spread from the tips of his ears poking through his wet mullet all way down to the black of his shirt.

‘Holy shit, you do know!’ Lance shouted almost in wonder. ‘Mullet-face had a crush on someone in space! Was it a blade of Marmora? Was it Kolivan? Oh my god, was it someone from Voltron?’ and amongst all the crap he was spewing from his mouth, he laughed.

And those intense violet eyes were on him in a second stunning the laughter out of Lance half a beat later.

‘Fuck you Lance, fuck you.’ And he was gone.

‘Oh shit.’ Lance felt the shame from before return to him tenfold. He hadn’t even realised it had started to dissipate as he spoke with Keith but now it was so much worse, it burned him up from the inside out. He leapt to his feet yet again in another vain attempt to escape the mortification rising up in him, blurring with the indecision of whether to chase after Keith or not.

‘You’re an ass Lance.’ And this fuck-up was finally enough to have Pidge’s full attention on him. 

‘Yeah, that was way harsh, Lance.’

‘Hey!’ He shouted in betrayal as he turned to look at the unimpressed faces of his best friends. ‘I feel bad enough as it is, don’t go quoting _Clueless_ at me.’

‘But why did you laugh?’ Hunk shot back looking genuinely confused. Lance shrank back in himself just a little.

‘You laughed at me when you found out about Allura.’ He couldn’t help but point out.

‘Yeah but you can take it though’ Pidge shrugged off. Lance didn’t mention that actually the way she and Hunk acted really fucking hurt, as all that thought did was magnify just how much his actions had hurt Keith. Keith was not the best at opening up and he probably didn’t need to be laughed at when he actually did express feelings that weren’t anger. And no matter how much it did hurt, Lance was the master at bouncing back. Keith, Emo-extraordinaire- not so much.

‘Yeah, yeah, I fucked up.’ And the edginess slowly slipped away as he sank back onto the sofa. ‘I just… can’t imagine Keith being all blushy and giggly and stare-y and stuff.’ He couldn’t stop the thoughts of Allura coming into his mind then, images of her laughing and fighting and shouting and instructing, and her soft smile when she thought no one was looking, and the badass way she could take down her enemies- even Lotor who had betrayed her so badly- and then the look of pity in her eyes as she told Lance that she didn’t feel the same way.

Yeah, he was projecting. It sucked if Keith felt this way too. He wondered who the person was to catch the eye of someone as strong and independent as their fearless black paladin. ‘It just seems so…. soft… for Keith’ He finished helplessly. The shame was receding at least, but he didn’t know if this lovesick melancholy was really any better.

‘Yeah, well he does all those things. And it’s gross.’ Pidge said returning her attention back to her screen.

‘Yeah, it’s pretty obvious dude.’ Hunk agreed, a teeny tiny bit of sympathy slipping into his voice. Lance shivered as he felt a strange hot sensation jolt from his belly button down to his crotch, setting his heart astutter. That was weird.

 He shook it off as guilt and settled down to think. He needed to make this up to Keith for sure. Maybe he could help out with his crush? Maybe it didn’t need to end as disastrously as Lance’s. Maybe if he observed him while they rested and got to spend more time together and maybe if it was as obvious as Hunk and Pidge seemed to think, then maybe he could work it out and get them together. Or at the very least help him reach closure without humiliating himself like Lance did.

Yeah, Lance decided, that’s exactly what he was going to do. No more rest for him, he needed to find out who had won Keith’s affection and get him his man before they were on the battlefield again.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance’s plan was simple. Whilst they were chilling on Earth with no need to be in combat, he was going to use all his super awesome stealth skills to observe Keith and his relationships with his fellow paladins. Except for Pidge and Allura of course (which he was quite glad for to be honest) and see if he could detect the clear tell-tale signs of a crush. Lance had enough experience of failed romances to know that there were certain things he did over and over again in his attempts to woo pretty women. And so, he set himself three very scientific criteria as defined below:

  * Stupid amounts of blushing and giggling at unfunny jokes as told by object of affection.
  * Falling over and doing other clumsy stupid shit in the vicinity of said object of affection.
  * Staring dreamily at object of affection when you think they are not looking.



 Lance hoped he would be able to catch Keith doing any or all of these things, though he had to admit that he felt a strange sort of thrill whenever he thought about Keith doing any of them. He assumed it must be the natural urge to make fun of the mullet-man, getting overexcited at the prospect of lots of new material, so he shoved the feelings down as far as possible. He was trying to do a Good Thing for Keith, so he couldn’t fuck it up with him _again_.

Maybe when he’d fully made it up to Keith and Keith was happy and settled with the love of his life and Lance was best man at his wedding, he could bring up any goofy things he saw him do in his toast. Yeah, that was a good long-term goal and should satisfy his wayward urges. He ignored the fact that the thought of being Keith’s best man at his wedding and embarrassing him in front of everyone he knew made him feel oddly disappointed.

He had managed to grab Keith and offer a brief apology which Keith shook off much too quickly for Lance to really feel any better about it, but Keith wasn’t ignoring him or glaring or arguing any more than usual, so he guessed Keith really had gotten over it. And he had his master plan anyway.

And sure enough, as Lance relaxed and took the time to observe his teammates a little closer, some sure-fire crush symptoms were starting to emerge. He first noticed this when he and Hunk were monopolising the kitchen to make cookies.

They had happily mixed together some real earth ingredients including real chocolate chips Hunk had gathered from the recently replenished food stores and had just shoved them in the oven when Mullet man himself wandered into the kitchen, looking around at the mess along the counters and settling himself on a stool facing Hunk and Lance.

‘What are you guys up to?’ he asked cautiously.

‘Making cookies!’ Lance answered grinning at him. He was excited to get a chance to really observe his team mate as well as to have an excuse to ignore Coran who had joined them a little while ago to question the nutritional value of cookies and mourn the lack of food goo they’d managed to consume since they lost the castle.

‘Yeah, I found some ingredients and got psyched! I haven’t tried baking cookies since the whole scaultrite incident.’ Hunk was also super excited, but Keith looked vaguely doubtful.

‘With Lance?’

‘Ha, well it’s hard to mess up cookies really, I mean children bake them all the time.’ Hunk explained pointedly ignoring Lance’s insulted ‘Hey!’.

‘I can cook! I may not be on Hunk’s level, but I can cook!’ Lance defended himself and then an idea hit him and he could do nothing to stop his mouth from moving. ‘I’ll prove it, I’ll make dinner tonight and the menu is going to be great. Do you know why?’ Keith looked even more doubtful.

‘Why?’

‘’Cause it’s got me ‘n’ you in it.’ and Lance winked, and finger gunned for full effect. Keith opened his mouth in shock as if to say something, but Hunk moaned, long and exaggerated, cutting it off.

‘Seriously Lance? That’s the best food pick-up line you could come up with?’ Hunk looked almost disappointed in him.

‘That was a great line and you know it.’ He defended. ‘Like you could do better’

‘Uh yeah, of course I can!’ and Hunk did a full body shake and leant close to Lance as if getting into character ‘You must be jelly because jam don’t shake like that.’

Hunk’s proximity almost made Lance blush, but he wasn’t impressed.

‘That’s super boring Hunk.’ He told him.

‘Nuh-uh, it’s a classic.’ Hunk said, thankfully slipping back into normal Hunk persona; Lance wasn’t sure how Shay handled all of that Hunk-ness if he ever flirted with her like that.

‘Nah. How about “Baby, if you were a fruit, you’d be a fineapple.”’ And Lance winked again.

‘Oh no, no. What about “Are you made of chopped onions? Because you are bringing tears to my eyes.”’

‘Yeah, that’s pretty good’ Lance conceded, ‘But do you have any raisins?’

‘No…’

‘How about a date?’

‘Ah, you sure are one in a Bouillon baby’ Lance grinned.

‘Damn straight I am. I’m local, natural, home-made and certified organic. Wanna taste?’

‘Your legs are like peanut butter, smooth, creamy and easy to spread’

‘Are you a doughnut? Because I’d just love to eat your hole.’ and Hunk immediately burst into laughter.

‘Oh my god dude, that’s gross, you win, oh my god.’ he choked out between laughter, hunched over and gripping his thighs as if he was trying not to wet himself. Lance grinned in self-satisfaction, he was just about to turn to Keith to see how he was reacting to the lines when Coran suddenly interrupted with a wink and a finger gun in Keith’s direction.

‘Ooh, I’ve got one! Are you a bowl of food goo? Because you are doing my body goo-d!’

Lance was dead, he could not breathe. Judging by the rasping sounds coming from Hunk’s general direction, he was in a similar situation.

‘Coran!’ Lance managed to gasp out.

‘Was that not any good?’ Coran asked innocently.

‘No man, it was brilliant.’ Hunk managed. Lance finished turning to look at Keith and saw Hunk was now leaning on his shoulder to keep himself upright with one hand and wiping the tears under his eyes with the other. But Keith… Keith was bright red and still giggling so very quietly, it was as if he couldn’t get enough breath to make any sound. Lance was sure he’d never seen Keith laugh so hard at anything before and he couldn’t help but wonder how long Keith had been giggling and blushing like that. Was he hysterical at Coran’s last line like Lance and Hunk or had it been Lance’s final line which set Hunk off? Or was it something Hunk said? Judging by the way they were supporting each other, and the way Hunk’s hand was gripped firmly on their leader’s shoulder, he couldn’t help but lean towards it being Hunk causing so much hilarity. Lance turned back to a non-plussed Coran and dissolved back into his own giggles again… but he would remember Keith’s reaction… it was interesting… very interesting.

 

* * *

 

                                                                                                                                                                        

The next day, Lance decided to check out the hot tub they’d been given private access to in the physio rooms in the medical centre. It was technically something to do with rehabilitation and aiding the healing of their injuries blah blah blah. All Lance heard when it was being explained was unlimited access to a jacuzzi. He had somehow not found the time to check it out yet; mostly because Allura seemed to find the idea a bit weird and well… best not go down that route again. Anyways, he was making his way downstairs in his swimsuit and fresh fluffy white dressing gown with a towel slung over his shoulder when he ran into another paladin.

‘Keith! What are you doing down here?’ He ran to greet Keith flinging an arm over his shoulders, ignoring how the other tensed up.

‘Hey Lance. Shiro told me I should make use of the jacuzzi.’

‘You don’t seem too happy about that? Man, it’s a jacuzzi!’ Keith looked at him like he was a weirdo, which to be honest happened far too often to actually shut Lance up. Maybe an intimate chat in a hot tub could clear the air? Or make things more awkward, who knew really.

‘Yeah, I mean who wants to sit in a tub of your own dirt? It’s like a bath but you have the added risk of seeing people you know half-naked. It's gross.’  Keith said. Lance did not agree by any stretch of the imagination, who doesn’t love baths? But he brushed past it. If he had a crush there must be at least one paladin he didn’t mind seeing half-naked right?

‘I guess it must be hard to not stare at this hot bod’ he gestured to himself ‘but it’s good for your will-power Keith. I thought you got better at managing your impulses in the quantum abyss.’ He nudged his side nearly knocking him off of his feet. He got a pained glare for his troubles.

‘I’ll do my best, noodle-arms.’ Keith deadpanned.

Lance gasped in fake shock. ‘Noodle-arms? Bro, I lift. There is a glorious body just waiting to be unleashed under this bathrobe.’

‘You hide it well.’ Lance was almost shocked into silence at the _audacity_ of it all. So much that he nearly didn’t notice that they had made it to the spa room. Keith pushed the door open a bit more forcefully than necessary to find Hunk, Coran and Pidge already in the Jacuzzi. Lance rushed in after him and stopped in front of the spacious tub to wave at his best friend. ‘Hunk! Tell Keith that I have the hottest body on this team’ and he struck a pose.

‘Er… sorry dude, but objectively, I think Shiro probably…’

‘Apart from Shiro!’ He butted in quickly, obviously no one was really in the same league as Shiro. Except maybe Matt, boy, had he glowed the fuck up in the last three years…. Nope, must not get distracted drooling over hot older men. He had a point to prove. He tuned back in to Hunk, who looked like he was seriously considering what to say.

‘Nope, still not the best. I mean have you seen me bro?’ and he gestured to his body mostly hidden by the bubbling water. Pidge groaned somewhere to Lance’s right, and he could almost hear Keith roll his eyes as he started to climb in, but he carried on. Amongst all the tension of saving the world, he didn’t often get to be this silly with Hunk and he was enjoying doing it for the sake of doing it rather than to actively offer comic relief.

‘Hunk, you gorgeous man, I love you, but you just cannot live up to this!’ and on the last syllable, several things happened at once.

Lance yanked his robe off in a dramatic fashion to show off his lightly sculpted abs (yes, he has been working out more, thanks for noticing), Hunk jumped out of the water to evidently do the same thing, Coran sprang out of Hunk’s way only to cover Pidge in a tidal wave of hot water and Keith fell face first in the tub.

‘Shit!’ Lance dived forward yanking a coughing red-faced Keith up. ‘What the hell happened?’ He searched the other for any sign of why the normally graceful, controlled man had been calmly standing next to him one second and a spluttering, bedraggled mess the next. Keith shook out his wet hair, his gaze meeting Lance’s, turning his face a deeper shade of red. He wrenched his hand away, grabbed his towel and marched towards the exit.

‘I’m fine. My hand slipped. I don’t care what Shiro says, I don't need the tub.’ And he fled the room without a single glance back. Lance slowly turned to the others and met three other equally confused and concerned faces. His hand slipped? He stepped toward the tub at the same angle Keith had to see if being in his position enlightened him any, but there was nothing about the edge at least that could have caused a Keith-malfunction. He rose his head to meet his friends' again and came face to face with Hunk’s bare chest, water slowly dripping down his defined pecs, massive bulk and gorgeously smooth, dark skin. Lance felt another gasp coming on. Could it be… that Keith was distracted by the sexiness that was his best friend without a shirt on? Hunk was there in the kitchen the day before as well… That was two out of three signs so far with Hunk in the picture. All he needed to do now was catch him staring, and he would know for sure.

With a grin in place, Lance threw a wink and a shrug at the direction of Hunk’s worried face and pulled himself into the jacuzzi, letting himself sink into the hot, bubbly luxuriousness. He was going to crack this for sure.

 

* * *

 

Just a few days later, Lance found himself trying not to fall asleep in the middle of the control room of the Garrison. As they were starting to recover, team Voltron were working hard with Sam Holt and the rest of the Garrison crew to prepare to head back into space and rage war on the Galra warlords still trolling the universe. Which was great. Really great to be on Earth and have so many great minds aiding their space adventures instead of just the seven of them plus any alliance members who could spare the time. But Lance had somehow managed to find himself stuck with the Holts and Hunk, and yeah, he adored them all really (and he really didn’t mind getting to ogle Matt some more ‘cause _Damn_.) but he had no idea what they were actually talking about. Sam Holt was pointing at various technical drawings on the screen in front of him and the others were making intelligent (Lance assumed) remarks on how to improve. Or something. He let his mind wonder and subtly tried to look around the room to see if there was somewhere he could be more helpful and use that as an excuse to escape without looking dumb. He’d had enough of that lately to last a lifetime.

He rolled his head back as if stretching and caught sight of Allura and Coran huddled together and chatting with cups of water in their hands, looking especially gleeful. Lance had told Allura about the Earth ‘ritual’ of gossiping by the water cooler in a workplace last time they had had a meeting here and she had been delighted, automatically grabbing Coran to join them to chat. Lance smiled just a little bit wistfully. He’d been so happy to tell Allura something that made her happy, is it really any wonder he’d read more into it than he should have? Either way, if he was to wander over there and join in, he would only make things awkward. He really didn’t feel like facing Allura’s pity right now.

Instead, he looked over Sam Holt’s screen to where Iverson was showing Shiro and Keith something on his screen, except Keith wasn’t looking at what Iverson was doing. He was staring straight at Lance, a glazed expression on his face, as if he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing. Lance started at the soft glint in the other’s eyes, the subtle way his lips were slightly parted, and his shoulders relaxed. And then it hit him. This was it! The last sign on his list, the staring dreamily at your object of affection when you think they’re not looking! But who was he staring at?

Lance knew. He knew really but he couldn’t quite believe that he’d figured it out so quickly. But he knew who he was standing next to, he knew who else was in Keith’s line of sight. Hardly daring to believe it, he turned his head to his right and sure enough -Hunk. Hunk was there explaining something in detail, in his element talking about the engineering of their ships or whatever, strong, capable and smart. And Lance knew he had it. The glee was culpable, he could barely contain it.

Still as he watched Hunk steadily grow more animated as he talked tech, he felt a strange sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He recognised the feeling, the overwhelming inadequacy that came over him when he didn’t feel like he was in control of the situation, that things weren’t maybe going his way. That feeling that you were so close to knowing something, only for something to change, go wrong and leave you more lost than ever. The feeling of being set up to fall.

He normally understood why his inferiority complex reared its annoying head though, but he wasn’t quite sure right now. He stared at his friend some more. Maybe the idea that he would never have someone crushing over him the way they did over Hunk? Not only had Hunk managed to bag a beautiful Alien lady, but he’d now caught the eye of their fearless, anti-social black paladin. Keith- who always seemed to be such a lone wolf- had somehow fallen head over heels for his best friend. And he knew why of course, he adored Hunk, Hunk was awesome. But it didn’t lessen the sting of the thought that maybe, no one would ever feel that passionately about him as Keith did about Hunk; as Lance had about Allura. He sighed and turned his attention back to Keith and gave him a little wave to try and snap him out of his daydream. As much as Lance liked to think of himself as a romantic, and as much as he flirted with people in places he maybe shouldn’t, there was a time and a place to have your feelings outed and the middle of a Garrison meeting about saving the world was not it.

Keith jolted back and his face went beet red, once again, as he realised he’d been caught. Lance gave him a salacious wiggle of his eyebrows to let him know he was on to him and Keith gave him a cute little wave back before forcing his attention back to Iverson, the blush never leaving his cheeks, ears and neck. Lance smirked to himself and also turned his attention back to his comrades, back to pretending he knew just exactly what was going on. He would catch Keith later, just as soon as he found a polite way to extricate himself from this conversation.

 

* * *

 

 

It took a while for the meetings to finish up and by the end of it, Lance had needed to take a nap. He was still recovering from a space explosion caused by an almost unbeatable mecha alien robot after all, but he awoke a few hours before dinner and ready to talk to a man about another man. He looked almost everywhere before something told him to check the lions, and after shouting his name rather loudly over and over again, a dark mullet poked his head out of the black lion’s mouth.

‘What do you want Lance?’ He asked, seeming flustered.

‘Hey Keith, just wanted a little chat.’ And he wiggled his eyebrows again. Keith gave him a weird look but seemed too tired to really argue and instead just shrugged.

‘Whatever, I’m in the back rooms. Come help.’ Keith turned and headed back into the depths of his lion. Lance followed him willingly into the back area of the black lion, where there were boxes chucked haphazardly everywhere, some open with contents spread across the floor.

‘Whoa, what happened in here?’ Keith turned and glared at him. Oh right, a space explosion caused by an almost unbeatable mecha alien robot was what happened in here. ‘You haven’t had time to clear up yet? I moved all my stuff into the apartment as soon as I could.’

‘Yeah, well the black lion’s the biggest one, so I’ve got loads of extra crap from the castle in here that’s not mine. And to be honest, I don’t even know what half of this is.’ He absent-mindedly climbed over the mess of boxes and plonked himself somewhere in the middle to start packing up all the junk laid across the floor. ‘Coran told me he’d go through them, but he didn’t want to risk getting stuck in the cargo hold again. But it’s stationary, how would that even happen?’ Keith was almost sulking at the end of his point.

‘Well, if anyone could do it Coran could.’ Lance carefully climbed over to where Keith was with considerably less grace than Keith. ‘I guess I could help. We’re just packing it up right?’ Keith nodded, and they got to work. Lance let himself settle into the task before bringing up what he actually came here to talk about. ‘Sooooo…’ he dragged out the syllable until he caught Keith’s attention. ‘So Hunk huh?’ and another wiggle of his eyebrows just to make sure Keith got the message. It didn’t work.

‘Hunk what?’ Keith replied non-plussed.

‘Hunk. You have a big gay crush on Hunk, I figured it out!’ Lance told him proudly.

Keith blinked, still looking confused for just a second longer, before it hit him what Lance was talking about. ‘Hunk? No, where the fuck did you get that from?’ Lance felt a hot wave of protectiveness wash over him.

‘Hunk is fine specimen of a man; the real question is why do you not have a crush on Hunk?’  Lance said, maybe a little too harshly because Keith seemed visibly taken aback.

‘I mean he’s got Shay?’ Keith said, but Lance waved it off.

‘You said it was unrequited.’

‘Yes, but Hunk has always had Shay. I like Hunk, a lot, but I’ve never even thought to consider him in that way, I was always just happy for him?’ Keith continued cautiously as if he was going to receive a reprimand for not appreciating Hunk enough.

‘Yeah, I guess I get that.’ Lance conceded. ‘So not Hunk?’ He looked hopefully at Keith. Keith shook his head.

‘No, sorry.’  Lance slumped forward and pretended to hit his head against one of the boxes of junk.

‘But I was so sure!’ He flung his head back up determined to explain himself. ‘You were giggling and blushing at his stupid pick up lines though! And the other day you fell in the hot tub when you saw him half-naked. And I caught you staring at him earlier today…’ Keith blushed at that.

‘That’s not what I was doing’ He turned away. Lance tried to think about it. He wasn’t imagining things, he was sure. Keith did do all of those things and it’s pretty weird behaviour without extenuating circumstances. And Hunk was there, all of the time. It couldn’t be a coincidence. But then there was someone else who was there all of those times. He could feel an epiphany coming on….

‘Oh my god, if it’s not Hunk then it must be….’ He was so close he could taste it, work faster brain…. He turned to Keith who was very obviously panicking, Lance was definitely close.

‘Coran!’ He shouted at last at the same time as Keith shouted:

‘Shiro!’

Wait, what?

‘Shiro?’ Lance questioned. Keith stared at him blankly.

‘Coran? Really? Did you really think Coran over Shiro?’ If Lance wasn’t so confused he might have found the look on Keith’s face pretty funny. It was a look of almost hyper-panic mixed with revulsion and he was still as bright as Rudolph’s nose, kind of like he was constipated. Lance didn’t think he’d seen anything close to this kind of expression on Keith’s face before and he almost felt like he should be taking it all in. But Shiro? He deflated once again from his previous excitement. He was obviously not very good at this.

‘I s’pose not. I just thought you had more of a brotherly relationship, you know?’ Lance asked quietly.

‘Nope. Just a big gay crush. On Shiro.’ Keith replied stiffly. Lance stared. Keith was not very convincing. He wasn’t sure if he’d witnessed Keith lie before as Keith never really cared enough about social norms to pretend he was something he wasn’t. But this was very weird. Maybe it was just Keith being uncomfortable with opening up? Keith had definitely become a bit more grown-up and open after his time in the Blade of Marmora but saying you love your Mom is still very different from confessing you have a crush on your older brother figure.

‘I’m pretty sure I’ve heard you say that Shiro was like a brother to you though.’ Lance tried one last time.

‘Um…. yeah… probably, yeah… I mean… I was just trying to cover up you know?’  Keith stuttered in a voice that was significantly higher than his usual. They stared each other down for about half a minute before Lance turned away in defeat. He guessed Keith was telling the truth and Lance was left feeling stupid. Again. ‘I’m pretty sure that’s how he sees me though?’ Keith said as if it was a question, throwing Lance a bone. Lance snuck another quick look at him, and whilst he was still blushing, his expression was exponentially softer, a little sad in fact. Maybe Keith could still do with someone to talk this through with. Lance just needed to adjust his mindset.

‘Man, that must suck balls.’ Lance offered as a lead in if Keith wanted to talk about it. There was really no chance for either of them to be with the one they wanted. Lance was pretty sure Shiro did see Keith as a little brother and even if he didn’t, Shiro was in no state to be getting into a relationship after all he’s been through with the Galra and Voltron, and he couldn’t even imagine the pain of losing his fiancé to the battle…. Yeah, Keith’s chances were not looking good. Maybe in a few years’ time, they could stand on equal footing, when they’d both recovered from their war wounds a little- maybe then they could see each other with new eyes. But right now? Keith was pretty screwed.

‘Yeah, it’s pretty bad, right?’ Keith laughed self-deprecatingly. ‘I’m not going to do anything about it, so you don’t need to worry about me messing up the team or anything.’ Lance nodded along.

‘At least you don’t need to be rejected outright then right?’ He said, offering a particularly shitty silver lining. ‘It was awful being rejected by Allura. She didn’t even seem mad or disgusted at me. Just sad. And pitying. You can’t ignore the pity. I think I was in love with her you know? She made me feel like I wanted to be better… just for her. She’s just so amazing and sweet and smart and brave, and I’m nowhere near her level. I’m just a boy from Cuba. But when we were together, I just felt like maybe, I didn’t have to be? I could be more. I could be a paladin of Voltron, saving the universe with a beautiful princess on his arm. The hero gets the girl, we get our happily ever after riding off into the sunset in our awesome space lions. And now, I just feel so _stupid_. And _ashamed._ Ashamed that I could believe I would ever truly be on her level. That she could love me back.’ Lance stared at the floor of the lion and just about held in his tears. He guessed he needed someone to talk to about it too.

He risked a quick glance at Keith and he saw sympathy and pain reflected back at him. He appreciated it in a way, being taken seriously and all. But honestly there was a reason no one really did take him seriously and this was because at the heart of it all, he was just no good at being vulnerable. He always thought he wanted to be- to let someone in, to share the burden- but when it came down to it; to the serious things that keep him up at night, it’s just awkward. It’s awkward to share his pain. It’s awkward to let someone see that he’s not happy, to force them into caring for him. It’s selfish and here he was being selfish again. Keith was suffering too and he was making it all about him. He took a deep breath and put the bravado back on albeit shakily. ‘And she’s fucking hot man.’ He finished with a grin.

Keith’s expression broke and he rolled his eyes. ‘I guess I get that. I mean he….my crush… Shiro… he makes me feel like I want to be better, but not because I'm inferior to him or anything, but because he believes I can be better and because I want to believe that too. I want to see myself the way he sees me. And yeah, he’s amazing and sweet and smart and brave, but he drives me crazy you know? He infuriates me, and I can’t help but argue with him, to rile him up. And I know he doesn’t believe that he’s amazing and sweet and smart and brave and that kind of kills me, you know? I don’t know how to get him to believe that, so I end up saying the wrong thing and getting myself tied in knots around him just because I want to be the one to show him how awesome he can be, how awesome he makes me feel. Because I know I’m not on his level either, I’m just a kid with discipline issues who lived in a shack in the desert. But when I’m with him, I know that’s not all I am. I am a paladin of Voltron, I am a leader, and I am whoever I want to be. And I don’t believe in Disney happy endings and all that, but we’d be ok. We’d make it work, I know we would.’ And Lance just stared mesmerised as Keith poured his heart out to him with so much passion, it left Lance winded.

It seemed at this point that Keith caught on to what he’d been saying because the blush returned in full force. He sheepishly ran his hand through his hair. ‘but I get the shame, completely, I shouldn’t be looking at him the way I do, and I know he’ll never love me back in that way.’ He smiled at Lance almost dreamily and Lance felt his heart clench in sympathy. He was almost overwhelmed with the intensity of Keith’s emotions and though what they were talking about was depressing and pathetic in a way, his chest almost felt like it could burst with the idea that he and Keith were sharing, were bonding and that he was the one Keith felt like he could talk about this with. But the situation was heavy, and Lance didn’t feel like he could maintain it right now.

‘And he’s fucking hot right?’ He joked, elbowing Keith gently. Keith looked up in surprise and then grinned.

‘Yeah. He’s pretty fucking hot.’ They shared a smile for a while before dissolving into slightly hysterical giggles; tension broken.

 They calmed down and sat in silence for a while and Lance tried to properly process all that had just happened. The others said that it was obvious, but he’d just never seen it that way. He knew that Shiro and Keith were close, but he honestly felt like Shiro was the missing parental figure that Keith never had, the older brother that kept you on the right track. Lance kind of felt like he was au fait with that kind of relationship being the youngest of five. But the closeness was there, and he could maybe see how a young, lonely Keith could see an older, attractive, friendly face wanting to hang out with him, giving him the attention he so sorely craved and just fall. A crush was inevitable when you looked at it like that right? Lance himself wasn’t entirely sure he’d never had a crush on Shiro, the kind of crush you have on a celebrity or a teacher. But after being stuck in a castle ship with him for so long, Lance didn’t think he would ever truly be able to see Shiro beyond that. He loved him for sure, he would die for him in fact. But he would die for all of his teammates. And true he had a crush on Allura, and he guessed he could have fallen for any of them really had the situation been right, had he not known Hunk so long, had Pidge been older when they met or had any interest in romance or if Keith wasn’t…. well, wasn’t _Keith_. But Shiro… Shiro was a definite no.

‘It’s just…’ he started, deciding it was time to start articulating his thoughts aloud lest the silence become too awkward. ‘He’s kind of like a Dad right? Like a space Dad? I guess I just don’t find that sexy.’ Keith looked at him frowning and opened his mouth to defend himself maybe, when Lance’s mouth ran on with him powerless to stop it.

‘Unless you have a Daddy kink.’ Keith choked on whatever it was he was about to say and instead started hacking loudly. Lance couldn’t stop himself. ‘I guess though if you really had a Daddy kink, you’d fancy Kolivan right? I’ve seen him getting all cosy with your Mama.’ and he elbowed Keith in the side.

‘What the actual fuck Lance?’ Keith coughed out and all of a sudden Lance was giggling again. Keith followed soon after. Lance didn’t really remember ever laughing this hard with Keith before, but he seemed to be doing a lot lately. Maybe it was the aforementioned maturity and openness coming through, or maybe it was just the lack of any real stressors right now that let them relax a bit. He liked it anyway, he could barely take his eyes off of the boy laughing next to him, no longer seeming all that much older like he had when he returned to the team, but instead the carefree eighteen-year-old he should have been before this whole thing started. He made a conscious effort to sober up and faced Keith head on with as serious an expression as he could hold.

‘So Keith, Daddy kink?’  Keith had also calmed down as this point and he tried to equal the serious expression on Lance’s face, but Lance could see the smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

‘Fuck you Lance. I can’t believe you brought my mother into this.’

‘You didn’t answer the question. Keith Kogane, Paladin of the black lion, leader of Voltron: defender of the universe, world-renowned Mullet-tamer, do you or do you not have a Daddy kink?’ Keith obviously struggled to hold down the flicker of his mouth this time.

‘No. I have a space Daddy kink.’ and before Lance’s very own eyes, Keith Kogane, Paladin of the black lion, leader of Voltron: defender of the universe, world-renowned Mullet-tamer, _finger gunned_ and _winked._ Lance very literally lost the breath in his lungs and it was his turn to hack them up.

‘You did not just do that. That was awful, so awful.’ He managed out as he regained his breathing. Keith just shrugged not even bothering to contain the grin spreading across his pretty face, and inexplicably, Lance blushed. ‘So… I’m gonna go. Pretend to be helpful elsewhere, somewhere that is not here with a strangely kinky Keith.’ Lance got to his feet and started to climb over the boxes he’d been filling with space junk. Keith heaved himself to his feet and climbed over the boxes next to him so that they were side by side again. Lance found himself struggling to make himself look at the other, lost in a peculiar sense of anticipation.

‘Sure. Think I’ll do the same…’ and Keith leaned in really close: ‘see you later, Daddy’. Lance slipped, tumbling into the boxes beneath him, not really believing what he just heard. The huff of satisfied laughter from above him proved that it must have happened. He whipped his gaze up as if he needed to see the truth with his own two eyes, only to see Keith almost bouncing away from him.

His eyes remained watching long after Keith disappeared through the doorway.

 

* * *

 

Lance was lounging in the communal living room watching TV and eating chips (real earth chips!!!) when he saw Hunk for the first time after his discovery. Hunk had just come in after doing whatever it is he does and after a quick hi, was busying himself in the attached kitchen.

‘Hey Hunk!’ Lance called out lazily before realising he had a bone to pick with his best friend. He hurried to his feet with his bag of chips and scurried over to Hunk who was now putting together a mini snack platter for himself. ‘So, I’ve had a little chat with Keith about his crush.’ He announced maybe a little smugly. He’d told Hunk his plan and had received nothing but a deadpan stare and head shake in response, so yeah, he was a little proud that it hadn’t taken him that long at all to get it out of Keith. Hunk lifted his head to look at Lance, an excited sparkle in his eyes.

‘Oh yeah? Did he tell you who it is?’ He seemed disproportionately hyped up for whatever Lance had to say, Lance actually didn’t think he’d be all that interested.

‘Yeah. And I’ve got to say, I did not think it was obvious at all.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, Shiro? I totally misread the relationship there.’ He leaned on the counter readying himself for a gossiping session now that he was properly in the loop. Hunk froze.

‘He told you it was Shiro?’

‘Yeah! I went to confront him ‘cause I thought it was you!’ Lance carried on.

‘Me?’ Hunk questioned disbelievingly.

‘Yeah. Or Coran.’

‘Coran?’ He asked in the same tone.

‘Yeah.’ Lance agreed straightening himself. ‘Pretty stupid, huh?’ Hunk stared at him blankly for several seconds and then abruptly turned away gathering up his snack platter.

‘So stupid. So so stupid.’ He shook his head and started heading towards his room. Lance watched him go confused. Hunk turned around and gestured at him with his food just before he reached his door. ‘Really fucking stupid Lance. I’m going to bed. Goodnight’ and he kicked the door shut. Lance couldn’t help but be just a little bit annoyed. He really wasn’t that stupid, and it stung that his best friend was so adamant about it.

He threw his chips away and made his own way to his bedroom. He wasn’t hungry any more, even for Earth food. He was going to get a head start on his night-time beauty regime and mooch in bed for a little while to try and forget the whole Keith-crush fiasco.

 

* * *

 

Lance, however, was really struggling to put it behind him for some reason. The conversation he had with Keith just kept nagging at him and there was something, just something, that didn’t ring true with him. He found himself watching Keith all of the time they were together to gauge his reactions with everyone still. What if he’d misread Keith’s relationship with any of the others? He especially found himself wanting to observe how he acted with Shiro, to maybe find the missing piece of the puzzle that would make Lance let it go and move on with his own depressing love life. However, for how close the two supposedly were, Lance had not seen them exchange more than a few words in the days that followed Keith’s confession and it frustrated him to no end and distracted him from any task that he attempted to do. Of course, it had to happen at some point, and happen it did one evening on his return to the apartment.

He was quite surprised to walk into the living room one night and see not only Hunk and Pidge but also Keith and Shiro sprawled across the sofa. It was rare to see them all just relaxing in the evening as they were quite often in the control room or holed up in a lab working on strategies or whatever. And if they were relaxing, they would mostly be found in their bedrooms or the training areas letting off steam or spending time with their family. The amount of times that all of them were chilling at the same time…. Lance could count them on one hand. But here they were, Shiro on the biggest grey armchair, Keith lounging on the floor in front of him and Hunk and Pidge curled up on the matching sofa.

‘Hey team.’ he greeted, nudging Pidge to one side flopping himself down next to her eager to join in like old times. ‘What we talking about?’

‘Hi Lance, I was just telling Shiro about Coran’s epic pick-up line the other night.’ Hunk said. Shiro looked over lazily.

‘I was disappointed to have missed it.’ Shiro replied, leaning back languidly in his armchair. ‘I think I could have come up with some good ones.’ Pidge giggled, her back vibrating against Lance’s arm from where she was now leaning against him.

‘I would pay to see that Shiro, seriously.’ Lance felt the corner of lips twitch as well, he couldn’t really imagine Shiro cutting loose like this. He had a few times of course with Voltron (crappy gun noises, mostly) but having gotten used to dealing with his clone, processing Shiro’s death and his general attitude as leader and Dad persona, Lance had kind of forgotten that Shiro was really not all that much older than them and he did like to be silly with them sometimes. Shiro was currently staring pointedly at Pidge in mock offence and to be honest it was really fun to see. But if this was warming Lance’s heart, he wondered what it must be doing to Keith to see the man he adored acting so relaxed and happy again. However, when he looked over at him, Keith was frowning.

‘Shiro, don’t.’ Was all he said. Shiro’s fake offended look seemed to shift into a real one.

‘You have no idea how good I am at pick-up lines, Keith. I have plenty of men and women throwing themselves at me.’ He almost pouted and Lance was transfixed. This was an excellent conversation to have with your crush, Keith should be loving this, should be taking the chance to flirt or whatever. Lance would have. But instead Keith’s frown deepened.

‘Yeah because you’re famous and attractive, nothing to do with your seduction skills whatsoever.’ And surely that should have been a blushing moment? Complimenting your crush? Talking about seduction? But Keith’s face was pale as ever and he still hadn’t even turned to look at Shiro. Lance did, and sadly for Keith there was no blush on Shiro’s face either, he just looked unimpressed. Lance needed to salvage the situation.

‘Hey, come on Keith, let Shiro show off his skills. He hasn’t had much opportunity to has he?’ Lance tried to put enough emphasis in his tone to try and get Keith to realise what Lance was doing, but Keith just aimed his frown at Lance instead.

 ‘Yeah Keith I’ve been too dead to really think about seducing anyone lately.’ Shiro butted in. Keith finally turned to look at Shiro and then looked at Lance, and then back at Shiro again. You could see the split second he crumbled.

‘Fine. Whatever. Lay it on me’ He gave in. Shiro started, clearly not have expected Keith to give in.

‘On you? That’s a bit inappropriate…’ He argued weakly. Keith pushed himself up and shifted round to be leaning over the chair arm, so that he was face-to-face with Shiro and held his gaze steadily.

‘Nope. If your pick-up lines are so great you should be able to use them on anyone.' Shiro shifted himself further away to sit upright.

‘I guess.’ He didn’t sound all that confident though.

‘And make it food related remember’ Pidge added, leaning forward to sit on the edge of the sofa and Lance found himself following suit.

Lance kind of felt like he hadn’t actually left his parents’ house and was instead stuck in the yard listening to his brothers egg each other on to make stupid trick shots with a basketball (His mother came and confiscated the ball after Marco’s throw just barely missed Lance’s niece and she burst into tears).

Shiro leant forward again and flicked his fringe out of his face, preparing himself, and made eye contact with Keith.

‘You must be a banana- I find you very a peeling.’

And there was a clear beat of silence before Lance couldn’t help himself and he was laughing manically; Pidge and Hunk joining too, all of them simultaneously trying to hold onto each other for support and dodging wayward knees and elbows from where they were struggling to remain in their seat.

However, there was no laughter from Keith, no blushing, not even a flinch. Lance would have definitely been a hot-ass mess if Allura had said that to him no matter how stupid the pun. But Keith was just glaring at him exasperatedly, ignoring Shiro’s sheepish face.

‘That was such a Dad joke Shiro, Lance is right, you are our space Dad.’ Lance stopped laughing immediately and instead began sputtering to explain himself. Pidge and Hunk just laughed harder.

‘Not cool, man!’ Lance squeaked out turning a betrayed look towards Keith. He stared back, his face deadpan.

‘Sorry, Space _Daddy_.’ and the fucker winked. Lance couldn’t help the burning heat spreading across his face nor the strangled snort that escaped his throat in shock.

‘What?’ Shiro whispered looking like he was seriously regretting attempting to spend time with all of them and turned a lost expression towards Lance.

‘I did not say that Shiro. I promise I did not!’ Lance defended himself before turning on Keith ‘You- are an asshole.’ And he reached back for the cushion behind his back and flung it as hard as he could. Keith caught it easily and stuck his tongue out. And Lance was lost to a sea of giggles again, still feeling the incriminating heat on his cheeks.

‘What the hell is happening? Is funny Galra-Keith back?’ Hunk butted in in awe and even Shiro couldn’t control himself this time and they were all laughing and kept laughing much longer than they should have, like a bunch of care-free teens at a sleepover and it was just so _nice_ that Lance was almost high from it.

As they started to calm down again. Keith started arguing about how he’s always been Galra- Keith and it didn’t change his sense of humour or whatever and Lance took the opportunity to take stock.

Lance was just confused, it almost felt as if Keith was flirting with him, and he didn’t react to Shiro’s joke at all- treated him like Lance had said- an annoying older brother. He didn’t get flustered at all by Shiro attempting to make the moves on him or seem all that bothered when Shiro talked about others throwing themselves at him or it being weird to seduce Keith. He should be, shouldn’t he? At least some of that should have provoked more of a reaction from him than just irritation.

And why the hell would Lance’s face not stop burning? Why was he so affected by Keith making space Daddy jokes that were so beyond unfunny? He tried to shake it off. He was probably just pleased that Keith felt comfortable enough with Lance to use him as a deflection point, to take attention off of his crush on Shiro and stop him getting suspicious. Lance nodded to himself. That was it. He was sure. And he wasn’t going to let his stupid racing heart, or this odd swoony sick feeling stop him from enjoying time with his teammates. He took a deep breath and turned back to the conversation which had moved on to which alien race had the best sense of humour. Lance smiled and focussed on making a good argument for Bii-boh-bi and crew.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t long after that Lance ran into Keith on the way to the physio tub again, Keith in his trademark red swim shorts and Lance again in his cosy white robe.

‘Oh Keith, we must stop meeting like this.’ Lance greeted him with a wink.

‘Wha…oh, hi Lance.’ He answered a little confusedly, shooting him a tiny smile. Lance grinned back at him as they carried on walking.

‘I thought you hated the idea of the hot tub?’ Keith made a face.

‘Shiro said he’d be there’ he replied with what Lance could swear was almost a pout.

‘Oh really?’ He raised a suggestive eyebrow at Keith and Keith’s face turned a fetching shade of red yet again as he seemed to realise the implications of what he just said. Lance ignored the weird squiggly feeling in his belly.

‘It’s nothing to do with that.’ He rushed out ‘He just did the disappointed Dad face again.’ Lance felt a pang of sympathy, being on the other side of Shiro’s Dad face is never particularly fun but it must feel much worse to be Keith, wishing that Shiro wouldn’t treat him like a misbehaving child, and instead see him as an adult in his own right. Lance can relate too damn hard to needing to prove that you are a man instead of an annoying little boy.

‘That sucks, Du…Dude! What the fuck?’ They entered the room with the tub to find Shiro already there casually putting his towel down, facing away from Keith and Lance. A scene to be expected really- except for the fact that he was wearing speedos.

A teeny tiny pair of black speedos.

Shiro turned around and immediately flushed pink. The view was not bad by any means; Shiro’s body was banging and his hard muscles from his cheese-grater abs down to those face-smothering thighs deserved to be on view- but the little piece of material barely preserved his modesty. And Lance could see _everything._

‘What the fuck are you wearing?’ Keith yelled from his side. Keith’s eyes were properly bugged out at the sight in front of him, the shock evident in his face and he just looked so horrified that Lance couldn’t hold it in anymore and giggled.

‘Oh my god, Shiro! What even is that!’ Lance wheezed as he doubled over holding onto the tub edge with one hand, clutching his stomach with the other.

‘It’s all I could find.’ Shiro whined and Lance didn’t think he’d ever heard Shiro whine like that before.

‘Well, it’s gross!’ Keith shouted out, apparently mortified on Shiro’s behalf. Still flustered, Shiro reached back for his towel. Lance stopped his giggles and leaned faux-casually against the nearest wall.

‘Now that’s just a blatant lie Keith. Shiro, I assure you that I fully appreciate the view of those bara-tiddies.’ And he wolf-whistled for emphasis. Shiro let out an exasperated sigh.

‘Shut up Lance,’ Keith added ‘and I still haven’t had a decent explanation for this Takashi.’ Another more annoyed sigh.

‘It’s all I had from the clothes we got from the castle. It’s not like there’s anywhere to buy any more right now.’ Shiro explained starting to sound a bit more like his commander-y self and less like a sulky child. And it was true, the world was still recovering from an alien invasion after all, Lance doubted malls had really had the time to pull themselves back together in the last few weeks. Not that he had really tried to go shopping; saving the world was pretty tiring it turned out and he was more than grateful to just be able to chill and spend time with his family at his parents’ house. ‘and besides, I thought I could pull it off! Matt and Pidge said I could!’

Keith scoffed and folded his arms.

‘Why would you trust Matt? And why on Earth would you show Pidge?’ Shiro opened his mouth to argue again but for some reason seemed to get side-tracked by the sight of Lance and he stuttered a second. Lance could’ve sworn he saw just a little bit of mischief in tired, grey eyes before Shiro turned back to Keith with a smug look on his face.

‘You sure you’re not just jealous Keith?’ Keith looked back with a mixture of disgust and confusion.

‘Jealous? Why would I be jealous?’ Shiro just grinned (Lance would say it was almost shit-eating) and flicked his eyes very pointedly to Lance and back. Keith’s eyes followed Shiro’s gaze as well and to Lance’s surprise, he turned bright red.

‘Shiro!’ He shouted and then before Lance could blink, he’d launched himself at Shiro and pulled him into a head lock. Lance had no clue whatsoever what was going on, but he couldn’t deny he was enjoying the view of two hot half-naked men wrestling in a steamy room. But if he was thinking in terms of Keith’s crush, which he was almost entirely devoted to thinking about lately, why wasn’t Keith enjoying this more?

Shiro was practically naked and all over him but Keith was annoyed and kind of grossed out when surely, he should have been a gloopy Keith-puddle right about now. How could he even form enough words to be arguing with Shiro? And how the hell was he keeping up with Shiro’s moves with such grace still? Lance was sure that if his crush suddenly appeared before him in what was basically a teeny tiny pair of panties, he’d be a Hot Mess. Period.

And then out of nowhere, he was bombarded with the image of Keith in a lacy red thong and thigh-highs and started choking on his own saliva. Then, just to add salt to the wound, in his distress he managed to lose his grip on the wall, slip on a random puddle of water near his feet and land firmly on his backside, jarring all of his still not-quite-healed injuries. He let out a shout of pain instinctively, but his mind was still too preoccupied with his own dirty imagination to notice too much. Like, what the fuck, brain, honestly? He must’ve been as red as his lion at this point.

‘Lance? Are you ok?’ Keith had obviously stopped fighting with Shiro to loom over him in concern, Shiro not far behind him. Which would be sweet and all if it didn’t place Lance face-to-face with that gorgeous little V of muscles leading into Keith’s swim shorts and he almost lost it again. Shit. Lance couldn’t even speak as he struggled to find something to say to explain his clumsiness. Thankfully, as if he’d been working it out in the back of his mind the whole time, a truly terrible image flashed in front of his eyes. He looked up into Keith’s beautiful purple eyes and his thoughts trundled out.

‘Didn’t most of the clothes we get at the castle belong to the previous Paladins?’ Keith and Shiro stood over him looking bemused, Lance cleared his throat and carried on ‘So didn’t Shiro’s clothes come from Zarkon?’

He waited a beat whilst Shiro and Keith processed what he just said and the resulting, disgusted groan coming from the two paladins was satisfying enough that it knocked his previous thoughts right out of his head and he dissolved back into giggles instead. 

 

* * *

 

It was another day; another day of debriefing and making plans on keeping the universe safe blah blah blah. Lance knew he shouldn’t really complain, he did understand the importance, he did. It’s just when it’s all engineering and tech stuff at the moment it does go over his head a little bit. When there’s action to be had and a proper strategy needed, then sure Lance is your man, let’s get Red all fired up and get this party started. But he was still recovering. They all were and all this talking about ships and weapons and spreading their message of peace and re-connecting the Voltron alliance was all hypothetical or else too technical or exhausting for Lance to be helping with at the moment. So yeah, all in all, he was a bit bored. He loved getting to lounge around on Earth and of course, when it came to the media stuff, he was the same razzle-dazzle pro as before, but he’d gotten used to a certain amount of high-stake action and the talking about it all just made him feel itchy.

At least this time it was a Voltron team meeting only. Just the paladins being explained things to by Shiro with Coran adding random comments as necessary. Lance’s attention wandered. Hunk, Pidge and Allura seemed to be having no problem listening and giving input to Shiro though Lance could see that Hunk was doodling on his tablet instead of making notes. But Keith was looking just as bored as Lance, his head bent towards his desk where his silky mullet fell over his tablet, staring absently at his fingernails.

Now this really was strange. Even before Lance knew about Keith’s crush he knew that Keith always listened to Shiro, always had something to say. And as he was the head of Voltron now, he probably should really be listening. Well, as second-in-command, Lance supposed he should be listening too. But he didn’t have a crush on Shiro and surely this was the best opportunity to get some ogling in? Keith had an iron-clad excuse to be checking out his crush right now, to stare dreamily at his stupidly handsome face and sigh like a love-sick pre-teen without any repercussions. And he was wasting it.

Lance wanted to believe that Keith wasn’t lying to him, but the signs weren’t adding up. Sure, there was a lot of love and a history between Keith and Shiro, but Lance just couldn’t see the chemistry there, any longing or romance or sexuality or anything really except the same brotherly love and respect that they all had for Shiro.  But why would Keith lie? Had he got it right the first time with Hunk and he didn’t want Lance to think badly of him for liking someone in a relationship? Or maybe Lance was wildly off-course and it was a blade of Marmora and he didn’t want Lance judging him for liking a Galra? Like Lance would with the number of aliens he hit on himself. There was something to be said about Galra men; Keith was Galra and he was pretty damn hot.

Lance couldn’t deny that he would love to run his hands through that mullet just to feel how damned soft it is, maybe even get to play with it properly. He wondered if Keith would like that, if his Galra side might manifest itself in a kitten-y way to make up for his lack of fluffy, purple ears. And his skin was just flawless, unfairly flawless as Lance knew he in no way put as much effort into his looks as Lance did. Yet, it still seemed like it would be smooth to touch, to run his hands across…. Maybe hold onto those ridiculously muscley arms of his-he was sure that Keith would be able to bench-press him and wasn’t that An Idea?  Keith could probably heft him over his shoulder with no problem, just throw Lance around like he was nothing… and yet, he still had that gorgeously slim waist that Lance was just itching to get his hands on, to feel the slight curve into Keith’s bony hips, maybe slip down to that tight little ass…wait, what was he thinking?

‘Shit!’

He wasn’t aware that he’d said that bit out loud until Keith snapped his gaze to look at him from where he was sitting a few empty chairs away. He gave him a curious glance and mouthed ‘You ok?’ at him, whilst, loser that he was, giving him a thumbs up. Lance nodded dumbly still a bit shocked at the track his brain had decided to take him down. And God help him, Keith smiled.

It was cute. Much too cute, just a small little smile like he found Lance endearing; as in actually endeared by Lance and not annoyed. And he had just the tiniest, rosiest of blushes on his cheeks. And without fully processing it, Lance smiled back, like he couldn’t control his lips, they just moved of their own accord and all he could do was revel in the stretch in his cheeks and feel the heat rush up his face. Keith’s smile widened until they were both just staring at each other like a couple of village idiots. And then Keith leant his head to the side miming sleep and nodded his head back at Shiro, and with a last flash of a grin, he turned his head to finally do what he should have been doing all along: stare dreamily at his crush.

Just like Lance had been doing to Keith.

Yeah, shit.

 

* * *

 

Lance had no real idea what he was doing. He’d run off as soon as the meeting was over and ended up just wandering around the Garrison, probably bothering a lot of the teachers and students. And he was sure Coran tried to talk to him at one point, but he didn’t have enough headspace left to pay him any mind.

He liked Keith.

Did he? He was staring at him and blushing and laughing at him and not to mention that stupid fantasy of the Mullet in lingerie the other day that made him fall off a damn wall. All the signs of a big old gay crush right there.

When the hell did this happen? He was still so caught up in Allura, how had he not noticed this going on? Was he really that stupid? Was everyone right and he was just a massive dumb-dumb? His heart sank. Of course he was. He had fallen for someone who was crushing on someone else. And not just someone else, Shiro. Takashi god-damned Shirogane- basically a god with a history with Keith so deep there was no way in hell Lance could compete.

But then Lance was having doubts about that wasn’t he? Keith didn’t giggle at his stupid Dad jokes, he ridiculed him and teased Lance instead. Keith didn’t get clumsy around him when he was wearing a skimpy swimsuit with his ridiculous pecs that he could probably make dance; he wrestled him with the same skill as always - he called him gross. And Lance hasn’t caught him staring at Shiro one single time.

Even then those times when he did catch Keith doing those things, he was sure it was Hunk’s silly pick-up lines that made him giggle, his also quite ridiculous chest muscles that made Keith face-plant into a hot tub and his handsome gorgeous face that he was staring at that day in the control room. Hunk and Coran were the only ones that were there each time those things happened. Shiro was there for none of them. Had he just misread the signs? Or was it really Hunk or Coran all along?

Except that it wasn’t just Hunk or Coran that were there those times was it? The only other person who was there all of those times was…

And quite suddenly Lance realised that he’d arrived outside a plain silver door which led to the office Pidge and Hunk were using to work in. The same office where he’d fucked up and laughed at Keith all those days ago. He needed to settle this. He pushed open the door and marched in decisively. And sure enough, Pidge and Hunk were sitting hard at work at the same control panel. Neither looked up as Lance ran in.

‘Hunk.’ Lance called out firmly, a tone of voice he didn’t often use with his best friend. Both Pidge and Hunk swung their chairs around to face him.

‘Lance?’ Hunk questioned scanning Lance’s face worriedly. Lance took a deep breath.

‘I have a crush on Keith.’

‘Holy shit! He admitted it!’ Pidge yelped out. Hunk stared at him a massive grin taking over his face.

‘Congratulations man, we thought you’d never work it out!’ and Lance felt a teeny tiny stab of annoyance in his chest.

‘You guys knew?’ He asked helplessly, chucking himself back down on the same old couch that sat behind them. ‘But I’ve been so hooked up on Allura!’ Pidge and Hunk shared carefully blank expressions before Hunk gave a tiny sigh and heaved himself out of his chair. He walked over to Lance and sat on the coffee table in front of him.

‘You’ve kind of been hooked up on Keith too.’ He said in his sweet “let’s just be rational here guys” voice and Lance felt the need to defend himself, he wasn’t that stupid.

‘Ok, but like Allura- she makes me want to be a better man. Keith doesn’t make me want to do that.’ He argued. And it was true Keith didn’t make him want to do that except that actually he kind of did because ‘Keith kind of makes me believe I can be better though, he made me his second-in-command, and he trusts me to look after you guys which kind of makes me feel like I already am a better man, you know? But Allura is so amazing and sweet and smart and brave… but then so is Keith in his weird anti-social way that is somehow stupidly endearing even if does drive me absolutely crazy.... And Allura, yeah, she makes me feel like I could be more than a boy from Cuba, but Keith never made me feel like being a boy from Cuba meant that I couldn’t be a paladin of Voltron. And Allura, is a princess, a mother-fucking princess! But Keith, Keith is a warrior. I don’t need to sweep him off his feet. I don’t need to be a prince in shining armour. We just have that chemistry as we are and even when we’re fighting I’m not sure if I want to punch his lights out or kiss that god-damned perfect pretty face...’ He stopped to draw breath and think about all of the rubbish he just spewed out ‘And I really get what you guys are talking about now.’

He slumped backwards from where he’d shoved himself forward in his passion. ‘Wow. It was pretty obvious, huh?’ He looked between Hunk and Pidge who’d made her way over during Lance’s rant to rest her chin on Hunk’s shoulder.

‘Yup.’ She answered, popping the ‘P’.

‘But he said he had a crush on Shiro?’ He asked his friends almost helplessly. He needed confirmation that he wasn’t crazy, that his observations hadn’t led him down the completely wrong path again, that he wasn’t imagining all of these things.

‘Oh Keith.’ Pidge shook her head. ‘How is the fate of the universe resting on such stupidity?’

‘Dude.’ Hunk said fixing him with a meaningful stare. And Lance finally let himself feel just a tiny flicker of hope.

‘It’s not Shiro.’ Lance confirmed like he was listing off wrong answers to a riddle he was trying to solve, not daring to take his eyes off of Hunk.  ‘It’s not you. It’s not Coran.’

‘Coran?’ Pidge asked confusedly turning to look at Hunk but both of them ignored her. Lance to study his best friend, and Hunk to hold his fists up to cover his mouth, as if he was trying way to hard to hold in a squeal, rocking back and forth and nodding his head excitedly. Lance could almost see the hearts in his eyes.

And he let the walls break. He let that tiny little flicker of hope burst his way through the carefully built defences in his heart that stopped him from seeing the obvious, that stopped him from falling completely. And he gave in. He let the flames engulf him and revel in the excitement and anticipation that followed. There was no shame here. There was no hurt, or pain or sadness. There was hope. Hope and the possibility that, although he hadn’t got what he initially wanted, that maybe, just maybe he was on the cusp of something brilliant, something better.

‘Well shit.’ He breathed out. And then a second later he threw himself back off the chair and almost ran back towards the door. ‘Gotta go guys. See ya later.’ he called hastily as he made his way back into the corridor.

He didn’t miss the high-five shared between Pidge and Hunk as the door swung closed behind him.

 

* * *

 

 

He’d barged into so many meetings or people working that he almost didn’t believe his eyes when he finally found Keith in their own living room, almost at the door, chatting to Shiro walking by his side as if they were just about to leave again. Lance nearly froze but he knew he needed to get this out and he needed Keith’s attention. He stood stock still in front of them both ignoring their confused glances and spoke.

‘It’s not Shiro.’

‘What?’ Keith answered looking as if Lance had lost his mind a little. Maybe he had. A little.

‘It’s not Shiro.’ He repeated himself a bit more firmly. And he could tell that Keith understood him this time by the sheer panic on his face.

‘Yes, it is.’ He blurted out and he forcibly grabbed Shiro’s human hand in his and waved both hands in front of Lance’s face. ‘I have a big gay crush on Shiro. I told him. We’re lovers.’ He burbled out the look in his eyes becoming increasingly wilder.

‘No, you’re not.’ Lance sighed.

Shiro looked between the two looking distinctly bemused and even a little bit scared. He gently manoeuvred his hand out of Keith’s grasp and started to edge around the pair to the door.

‘Right. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think I should leave you guys to it.’ Shiro said maintaining his normal, Dad-cum-leader composure before ruining it in an instant by legging it out of the door as fast as he could. Keith’s panic grew.

‘It’s Hunk. It’s Coran!’ He shouted out.

‘Keith…’ Lance was a little bit hurt. Was Keith really this desperate to keep this a secret? Keith looked for a second as if he was going to follow Shiro’s suit and run for the door but instead he locked his gaze onto Lance’s and visibly deflated.

‘Fine.’ He bit out, ‘It’s you Lance. I have a stupid gay crush on you. And you can shout at me for lying all you want, but like hell was I going to come out and humiliate myself when you were so hung up on Allura, who’s so freaking perfect… I knew I didn’t have a chance.’ He took a deep breath and carried on. ‘Not to mention that the minute I try and offer some sympathy to you, you laugh at me. You think the idea of me having a crush or any sort of romantic feeling is so fucking hilarious, of course I wasn’t going to tell you. But you know now, so go ahead. Make fun of me. Stupid, emo alien-boy falling for someone so far out of his league he should be fucking ashamed of himself.’

Lance just stared. He took it in. All of the resentment and self-hate and rejection that Keith just thrust upon him. He took it all because it was fair. He had not shown himself to be trustworthy with Keith’s feelings at all. But this hope, this fire in his chest, it was still there, raging on. All of Keith’s hate couldn’t dampen this burning want, still growing larger and larger the more he watched Keith breathe in harshly and swallow hard, and wipe at his eyes as if he was about to cry (had Lance ever seen him cry before? He couldn’t recall but he was sure he didn’t want to see it). This hope was still there enticing him forward, like stepping out of a car after a voyage through space and finding that your whole family had turned out to welcome you home, like the last five minutes of an exam before you were free for the summer, like when the lights went down in a concert arena and the first few notes of your favourite song from your favourite band start to play out and you know, you just know, that the next few moments are going to be amazing, that the anticipation is going to give and something great is going to happen, so great that you’re not sure how your heart is going to take it without going into cardiac arrest.

So, he tried not to think too hard. He knew how Keith felt and he knew how he felt. He just needed Keith to see the whole picture now.

‘Keith.’ He started, gently, probingly, to get him to calm down just a little, to show that he wasn’t going to heartlessly throw his feelings back in his face, that he had something to say that was worth listening to. ‘I blush and giggle when you make unfunny jokes, I fall over and do other clumsy shit when you’re around and I can’t help but stare dreamily at your stupid mullet when I think you’re not looking.’

Keith stared at him, and Lance thought he saw, maybe that same hope and anticipation starting to flicker and burn through his tear-stained face.

‘Lance?’ He asked cautiously. And yes, Lance could hear it trying to force its way through Keith’s defences, could tell that Keith was trying to dampen it just a little just in case he was wrong, that he wasn’t understanding what Lance was saying. So Lance forged on.

‘I get that I was hung up on Allura, you probably think I’m in love with her, hell I was convinced I was. But do you remember what you said to me when I thought you were talking about Shiro? I get it. I so get it. Because you… you make me want to be a better man, but not because I’m inferior to you but because I know that you believe in me, that you think I can be. And I want to believe that too, to be the man you see when you look at me. And you are also amazing and sweet and smart and brave, but you drive me crazy. You infuriate me, and I can’t stop fighting with you or bringing up your mullet- I’m starting to think I’ve got some very confusing feelings about it.’ He paused to laugh nervously at his point, Keith laughing lightly back, and he pressed on, his heart beating even faster than he thought possible. ‘And I know you think the same things about me and you might agree with me that you’re pretty awesome and brave, but I hope you realise how sweet and amazing you are too. I want to show you you are every day. And you make me feel awesome, I think we should spend all of our time showing each other how awesome the other is instead of saying stupid things and fucking up. ‘Cause I don’t really know why I laughed that day, but I think it was some kind of nervous reaction. I hadn’t really believed you could have those sorts of soft feelings and I couldn’t cope with how desperately I wanted you to be that soft with me. You are so on my level, Keith, in fact you’re beyond my level. You are not just a kid with discipline issues who lived in a shack in the desert and I am not just a boy from Cuba. We are paladins, defenders of the universe, the leader of Voltron and his right-hand man. But we are even more than just those things, we are Lance and Keith, and I don’t believe in Disney happy endings either, not really, but you and me- we could be amazing, and we would make this work. Because we make a damn good team, Keith.’

And Lance breathed again. That was a whole lot to get off his mind and he wanted this, wanted this so badly but even though he’d put his heart on the line, he wasn’t used to this. He didn’t do this, he didn’t let people in like this. And Keith was staring at him, still with wet eyes, in total awe and he didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing and he almost felt the need to back track, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to keep pushing forward, he needed to get Keith to say something. So, he did what he did best, he winked and flashed a finger gun in Keith’s direction and he said:

‘And you’re fucking hot too.’ And Keith laughed. He giggled in fact, and his face blushed red and he stared at lance like he was something precious. And Lance blushed red too and giggled and watched Keith lose himself just for a moment.

‘Lance, what are you even saying?’ He pushed out as he calmed down but there was a big grin on his face as if he knew what Lance was saying. He knew, but he just needed confirmation, that closure to know it was safe to fall.

‘I’m saying, Keith Kogane, Paladin of the black lion, leader of Voltron: defender of the universe, world-renowned Mullet-tamer…’ and he dared to step forward and reach out for Keith’s face ‘that I have a big gay crush on you.’ And Keith surged forward and kissed him.

He kissed him. Keith was putting all of this tension, all of this fire into the place where their mouths joined, and Lance met him as best he could, pushed into him with all he had, wrapped his arms around that gorgeous little waist as Keith reached up and ran his hands through Lance’s hair, and moved their lips softly but passionately against each other. And it was perfect. This moment was amazing. Keith was amazing. It was all Lance had hoped for and more. Like your long-time crush liked you back and there was no other comparison.

After a while, he reluctantly pulled back just a little bit.

‘You do feel the same right?’

Keith huffed out a bit of air against Lance’s lips, determined to not move too far away.

‘Yes Lance.’ And Lance again wasn’t sure how his heart was coping with this much _feeling._ ‘I think you’re fucking hot too.’ And the dam burst again, and they giggled against each other, foreheads together, still wrapped in each other’s embrace.

‘So…’ Lance said as they stopped laughing again. ‘In the kitchen, you weren’t laughing at Hunk’s puns?’ Keith shook his head, still not stepping away.

‘Nope. That was all your stupid doughnut hole joke.’

‘And the hot tub? When you lost your balance?’ he could practically feel Keith’s skin heat up against his.

‘You took your robe off! I’ve seen you shirtless before, but I wasn’t prepared to suddenly be flashed by the guy I was lusting over.’ And Lance felt his own skin heat up again. He swallowed

‘And in the control room, you weren’t staring at Hunk?’

‘Nope.’ Keith popped the ‘P’. ‘I’m surprised that’s the first time you caught me. Hunk, Pidge and Shiro have caught me loads of times.’ And Lance couldn’t explain the fullness. The completeness of having Keith tell him these things, wrapped up in his arms. So, he moved down and kissed him again.

Then he pulled back with just the barest of spaces between them, their lips still brushing against each other as they spoke.

‘Keith… I think I have more than a crush on you.’

He felt Keith smirk against his lips.

‘I think I have more than a crush on you too.’

And he kissed him again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it :)
> 
>  [Tumblr](https://hamletmouse.tumblr.com/)


End file.
